The present Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) with a vision “to enable society to better manage the risks and opportunities arising from climate variability and change, through the development and incorporation of science-based climate information and prediction into planning, policy and practice” carries forward and builds on the solid foundation laid by the Climate Information and Prediction Services (CLIPS) project.

Data repositories and archives play a critical role as the source for the observational data used in the study of weather and climate. After over two centuries of recording observations on paper, observations in the last 20 years have mostly been collected digitally. Creating homogeneous, complete data sets from disparate collections is a fundamental challenge facing the climate research community.

Weather prediction has achieved immense progress, driven by research and increasingly sophisticated telecommunication, information technology and observational infrastructure. Predictive skill now extends in some cases beyond 10 days, with an increasing capability to give early warning of severe weather events many days ahead.